Friday, March 30, 2012

The remote alpine village of Vals in the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden rose to fame when star architect Peter Zumthor built new thermal baths there in 1996. The spa is well known for its quarzite slab construction. Now the surrounding hotel complex is in need of renovation. An investor has offered to buy the whole site, but Zumthor fears for the future of his masterpiece.

British architect David Adjaye, OBE was awarded Design Miami 2012 Designer of the Year, Crane.tv interviews him at the Wolfsonian museum in Miami to discuss the award and why he always draws inspiration from his heritage.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Spanish architects Nicolas Montesano, Victor Vila, Boris Hoppek were recently awarded announced the winners for their proposal for the Amsterdam Iconic Pedestrian Bridge competition. The proposal a central enclosed space or water plaza is defined by its circular shape partially submerged underwater to allow boats can cross through whilst pedestrians and cyclists can pass along its perimeter.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The residence on a cliffside lot in Gig Harbour, Washington was designed by Architect Scott Allen while a still named principal at Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen. The programme of the house is inverted as one descends stairs to the water interspersed by a series of decks, terraces, and bridges that create spaces for living and entertaining. The palette of materials were selected for their abilities to withstand this marine environment, including copper, concrete and cedar.

Friday, March 23, 2012

To create a smarter space, Kennedy constructed a 160-square-foot test home (the smallest legal-sized apartment for California) inside a Berkeley warehouse. SmartSpace 1.0 is filled with innovations like the SmartBench, an adjustable banquette that converts from a dining table to a guest bed.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sorg Architects has designed new, sustainable, staff housing for the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The project consists of 107 new townhouse units, a new Mission residence, and support facilities, including a recreation and sports centre. Completion is scheduled for January 2014

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The aim of the Sensational Park in Frosinone, Italy was to harmonize the relationship between nature and urbanism. The design based around the 5 senses invites users to define their own path discovering different spaces along the journey. Designed by Nabito Architects & Partners the park was completed in October 2009 and is comprised of a series of truncated cones submerged amongst the landscape.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Located on Gibbs Beach, on the West Coast of Barbados this single-family beach house is framed by the vegetation on site and the sea. The residence designed by Architects Cubed (Linda Moore & Shawna Beechley) with landscape by Talma Mill Studios is a modern interpretation of the Chattel - a timber vernacular house native to Barbados.

With the repeated flooding problems at the Mies van der Rohe designed Farnsworth House, concerns arose damaged original artefacts as well for additional exhibition space. Many of these include Mies designed wardrobe can no longer remain on display at the Farnsworth House. The director of the Farnsworth House, Whitney French approached the design build studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology headed by Professor Frank Flury to design a space to house both the wardrobe and various exhibitions on the Farnsworth property in Plano, IL.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Amsterdam based practice Studioninedots with HVDN has recently won an invited competition to design a student housing facility for TU Delft Campus in the Netherlands. The proposal for 140 standardized student units, each 24m2 housed in a 5 storeys high on 388m2 site is part of a 1000 room expansion taking place on the TU Delft campus.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A free lecture of the building the Cathedral’s Chancel in 1848-53 by Dr. James Robertson. The lecture includes part of a BBC documentary featuring the Cathedral and one of its historic John Bacon monuments. To be held at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, March 11, 2012 at the Spanish Town Anglican Cathedral, Spanish Town, JAMAICA.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

This otherworldly outdoor dining pavilion (sighted on Remodelista) was designed by South African-trained, New Zealand-based Lance and Nicky Herbst of Herbst Architects. The simple outdoor structure - a clever folly designed to enhance the beach lifestyle for its owners, was conceived to be used for light cooking, dining and relaxing. The pavilion is made of a simple structural frame over-clad with awnings, screens and translucent sheet blending rustic elements (a timber frame clad with rough manuka sticks) with modern materials (translucent sheets of polycarbonate siding).